All-dielectric free-electron-driven holographic light sources

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how holographic nanostructures on dielectric surfaces can control transition radiation emission from high-refractive-index materials, enabling differentiation from luminescent emission.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to manipulate and distinguish transition radiation from incoherent luminescence using holographic surface structures on dielectric/semiconductor targets.

Findings

Holographic structures influence transition radiation emission.

Luminescent emission remains unaffected by surface reliefs.

Method allows discrimination between emission types.

Abstract

It has recently been shown that holographically nanostructured surfaces can be employed to control the wavefront of (predominantly plasmonic) optical-frequency light emission generated by the injection of medium-energy electrons into a gold surface. Here we apply the concept to manipulation of the spatial distribution of transition radiation emission from high-refractive-index dielectric/semiconductor target materials, finding that concomitant incoherent luminescent emission at the same wavelength is unperturbed by holographic surface-relief structures, and thereby deriving a means of discriminating between the two emission components.